Christian World | In his first speech in Argentina, Pope Leo XIV urged leaders to treat authority as service and ask why so many young people feel they must emigrate

ACW | November 9, 2026 — Pope Leo XIV told Argentina's political and civic leaders on Sunday that authority is most authentic when exercised as service, in his first address on Argentine soil, Vatican News reported.

President Javier Milei met the pope at the Buenos Aires airport and held a private meeting with him before the speeches, EWTN News reported. Argentina is the second stop of the pope's 12-day South American trip.

"Authority is most authentic when it is exercised as service," Leo said. On emigration, he said: "A nation must seriously ask itself where it has failed when its young people have to leave their homeland."

"Corruption undermines the confidence of citizens in their institutions," the pope warned. Organized crime, human trafficking networks, and arms and drug trafficking, together with corruption, "all undermine social cohesion," he said, according to EWTN News.

He called for economic policies that leave no one behind, including families, the unemployed, the elderly and low-income workers, Vatican News said. He also spoke of protecting human life from conception to natural death and of the ethical questions raised by artificial intelligence.

Democracy is strengthened "through willingness to listen, through careful use of words, through the patient search for agreement," the pope said.

Background: The pope began the trip in Uruguay on Nov. 6 and travels on to Peru after Argentina. ACW reported the itinerary in Pope Leo to visit Uruguay, Argentina and Peru on 12-day trip.

Why it matters: In his first speech in Argentina, the pope urged leaders to hand future generations "a united homeland," telling them: "Much of that responsibility rests in your hands today," Vatican News reported.

ACW will continue to follow this story.

Sources: Vatican News — Pope Leo urges Argentina's leaders to put common good before political interests; EWTN News — In Argentina, Pope Leo XIV highlights social problems

Photo: Daniel Ibáñez/EWTN News — Pope Leo XIV addresses Argentine authorities